Dear Editor,
I witnessed corporal punishment more than physically experienced it, but it left me mentally scarred and traumatized through to adulthood. My parents never flogged us and it had no adverse effect on the upbringing of their children.
As I turn back the pages of my school days I remember that it was in a private secondary school that I witnessed brutal caning in a co-education system. Boys were caned openly in front of girls and similarly girls in an open class environment. If the misdemeanour warranted the assembly to witness the spectacle, then this humiliating exercise was done on the stage.
I recall that there were three persons who administered the caning – all senior masters – and each had a distinct talent that was not a gift of the holy spirit. They seemed to enjoy it as the cane came down with an echoing sound and there was pain – blood if inflicted on the hands of the girls – and tears. The boys did not cry but these architects of punishment seemed to enjoy it so much that I wondered if it was not on the curriculum.
Years later I realised why I would experience nightmares in December as I dreamt that I was in school.Those dreams never left me. It was my migration overseas which provided an environment of learning at an adult age at the tertiary education level, and which gave me a successful career, though I admit the foundation was laid under a brutal system.
The Minister of Education is one of my favourite ministers, and she should not re-introduce corporal punishment. Let strict discipline be enforced: ‘two or three strikes and you are out.’
Yours faithfully,
(Name and address provided)
